About the Original Author

Recent articles by this author

You can edit the LotusConnections-config.xml file that controls the IBM® Connections theme to incorporate the new cascading style sheet (CSS) theme. Also, the new theme requires you to switch off Internet Explorer 7 compatibility mode. Switching off compatibility mode is required for the new theme ...

Overview

The idea for this article came from a customer need. The company had different brands on the market and wanted a different "look & feel" for every brand in their IBM Connections environment. This solution also applies in the case of a company that wants a different UI for different departments on their intranet.

In this scenario, Brand-1 is the main company and social.ondemand.it is the host name of the IBM Connections system. We also have another brand, Net2Action, with host name social.net2action.ondemand.it. We want to use Connections services for both brands, as shown in the following architectural diagram.

To achieve a solution for this scenario, we must define a virtual host for this sub-domain as described in the following sections.

Setting up the HTTP Server

In the IBM HTTP Server (IHS) configuration directory, you must create different configuration files, one for each domain. In this example, we need only one for social.net2action.ondemand.it to be included it in your httpd.conf file.

Customizing IBM Connections Themes

IBM Connections need to load different stylesheets depending from where the request comes, social.ondemand.it or social.net2action.ondemand.it. To do so, we use a parameter in the query string that defines the origin of the request. In our case, the parameter name is skin.

We want to customize the login page for each domain, changing the "Welcome to IBM Connections" message to something different.

Copy the file com.ibm.lconn.core.strings.templates.properties from the lc.util.web-3.0.jar file found in the <application_name>.ear/<war>/WEB-INF/lib directories in <customization_dir>/strings directory.

Add the following lines:

# custom title

custom.themes.brand1=Welcome to Social Zone

custom.themes.n2a=Welcome to con.nect2action

# this Agreement

agreement.condition1=1.Not publish sensitive information

agreement.condition2=2.Abide by all ethical policies

agreement.condition3=3.All content may be monitored

agreement.condition4=4.No inflammatory or derogatory comments

agreement.condition5=5.No profanity to be used

agreement.condition6=6.All content must be accurate to best of knowledge

The Result

Editing the header.jsp File

Now copy the header.jsp from one of the features from one of the WAR files located in
<WAS_home>/profiles/<profile_name>/installedApps/<cell_name>/<application_name.ear>/<application_name.war>

where:

* <WAS_home> is the directory where you installed IBM WebSphere Application Server.
* <profile_name> is the profile where you installed one of the IBM Connections applications.
* <cell_name> is the cell where you installed the application.
* <application_name.ear> is the EAR file name for the application.
* <application_name.war> is one of the following file names:

Application

File name

Activities

oawebui.war

Blogs

blogs.war

Bookmarks

dogear.webui.war

Communities

comm.web.war

Files

qkr.share.files.war

Forums

forum.web.war

Home page

homepage.war

Profiles

lc.profiles.app.war

Search

search.war

Wikis

qkr.share.wiki.war

In $CONNECTIONS_CUSTOMIZATION_PATH/common/nav/templates, edit the header.jsp.

The Result

The result looks like this:

About the Authors

Roberto Boccadoro is an IT Specialist in the Lotus Client Technical Professional team. You can reach him at roberto.boccadoro@it.ibm.com

Andrea Fontana currently works as a System Architect, defining, organizing, and configuring complex IBM product-based solutions. In particular he works with WebSphere Portal and its collaborative environment including Domino 8.0.x, 8.5, IBM Connections 3.01, Lotus Quickr 8.0.x, and IBM Sametime, with respect to setting up SSO Kerberos integration solutions and configuring systems with a r-proxy solution with SSL integration. His past experience includes roles as an Application Developer, Database Administrator, and Project Manager in a wide variety of business applications. He graduated from the ITIS Zuccante C., Mestre (Venice), specializing in Industrial Electronics. You can reach Andrea at a.fontana@net2action.com.